A Soviet Simchat Torah

For the Jews of Soviet Russia who celebrated nothing else, Simchat Torah was enough to transmit the full weight of what it means to be a Jew.

I know I shouldn't say this, but I used to feel that the Tishrei holiday schedule was rather grueling. Every time you turned around, there was more cooking, more cleaning, more guests, more services, more Shabbos, more Yom Tov. It was exhausting. As a mother of young children with a full time job, I would look forward to Simchat Torah for its signal of the end of the seemingly interminable holiday season.

Then I discovered something that forever changed the way I approach the holiday.

I was born in Minsk in the former Soviet Union. My family, like so many others, immigrated to the U.S. in the late 1970s. I was given life twice: once when I was physically born, and once when my parents had the courage to take me out of Soviet Russia, so that I could have my life, complete with religious observance, a profession, a wonderful family and the panoply of rights and privileges I enjoy. I will always be grateful to God and to my parents for both.

Shortly after the holidays one year, I was discussing our exodus from the Soviet Union with my mother, and she said, "In some ways, Simchat Torah influenced our decision to leave." Since my mother is not observant, this was a curious statement and I sensed that there was a lesson here.

It is no secret that the former Soviet Union was an inhospitable place for anything Jewish; one's Jewish identity was a liability, not an asset. But during the 1960s, because Israel was showing its might through its many wars, the Jews of Russia began to feel emboldened, if only slightly. Simultaneously, the American Jewish community began paying attention to the plight of Russian Jewry and initiated great lobbying efforts to pressure the Soviet government to allow Jewish immigration. With both forces converging, Soviet Jews for the first time began considering the previously impossible thought of leaving the Soviet Union for a better life elsewhere.

Equally astounding, beginning in the late 1960s, the Jews of the large cities of the Soviet Union began to congregate periodically in large demonstration-like groups around the state-sanctioned though locked synagogues. The day of these spontaneous gatherings of thousands of Jews in cities across the Soviet Union: Simchat Torah.

"Why Simchat Torah," I asked my mother. "Why not Rosh Hashana, Passover, Yom Kippur? Who knew the date? How did people find out about it? Who started the practice? Why did you go? What did you do?"

For the Jews of Soviet Russia, Simchat Torah was the one opportunity to celebrate who they were.

My mom thought these were silly questions. "We did it because all the young Jews in the city were going and we found out about it from our friends, and they from their friends. We went, we sang, we danced, we met people we hadn't seen for a while, we laughed, we read letters from Israel, we exchanged information about immigration and life abroad. It was simply one time a year when we could be unafraid and happy to be Jews, even with the KGB shills in the crowd. The feeling there was profound. We felt our strength. We saw our numbers. We realized who we were and we were proud."

For the Jews of Soviet Russia, Simchat Torah was the one opportunity to celebrate who they were. They had no other holidays to experience the various aspects of their Jewishness or their connection to each other or to the Eternal. Simchat Torah was it. More specifically, Simchat Torah was a celebration of who they were apart from being Russians, of their separate values, their separate ways, their separate status, and the separate criteria by which they were judged. On all other days, this separateness engendered hostility from their neighbors; on Simchat Torah the separateness was turned on its head and celebrated.

Many Soviet Jews participating in these rallies had never seen the Torah in whose name they celebrated. Yet, by their descriptions of the events, the Torah was never far away. Evgeni Valevich, a Russian Jewish musician, wrote a popular song to reflect the mood at those Simchat Torah celebrations. "As the old cantor sang," the song goes, "our small nation seems so great." Amazingly, this pride and sense of nationhood was such a new and unique feeling for so many Jews, it compelled them to transform their lives completely and emigrate.

On Simchat Torah we celebrate the Torah that we just completed reading and studying carefully over the course of the year . We know what it contains. We know the endless joys and depth the Torah's laws provide for our lives. Yet, as the Soviet celebrations indicate, this joy is not merely academic, it is also intuitive. We know in our hearts that the Torah, its values and the sense of nationhood that is its derivative, are miraculous and we must set aside a special day to celebrate. Even where Jews celebrated nothing else, Simchat Torah, with Torah at its center, is enough to transmit the full weight of what it means to be a Jew.

My mother's lesson is simple, yet profound: Celebrating the Torah on Simchat Torah is celebrating Judaism and Jews. In celebrating Simchat Torah we celebrate all the holidays taken together; we celebrate Shabbos, we celebrate mitzvot, we celebrate Jewish values, we celebrate Jewish survival, we celebrate Jewish potential. In short, we celebrate everything we are and everything we can be. Simchat Torah is not an afterthought. In some ways, it is the holiday that gives everything else perspective.

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About the Author

Inna Pullin is an attorney in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She is working on a book with her mother about what America means to a Jewish immigrant . She lives in Glendale, Wisconsin with her husband, Eric, and her two children.

Visitor Comments: 13

Dear Inna,
Thank you so much for your inspiring article. You put into words experiences and feelings of many Russian immigrats, myself including. Wishing you and your family all the best.

(11)
Anonymous,
October 7, 2009 2:30 PM

a gift

Thank you so much for explaining my feelings on paper. I too came here with my family in the early 80's. We practiced our Judaism in secret in FSU. I was lucky that my grandparents knew the halachot, customs, and Jewish dates of celebration. We were not religeous, how could we be? However, we kept kashrut, passover and all the holidays. My grandfather even found an old book and was teaching all the grandkids Hebrew words. He was getting ready to take us out of Uzbekistan.
If we did all those things while in Russia, I think that it would be a sin not to, here in the states. So I have my children in a Jewish private school and I try my best to give them the gift that my granfather and parents tried so hard to hold onto.
I think that way too many Russian Jews are lost when it comes to Judaism because of so many years of supression, and asimilation. Articles like these bring tears to my eyes.

(10)
Shushannah,
October 7, 2009 7:02 AM

Giving of Torah

I think that it is really neat and cool that in a place where our identity as a people was all but stripped from us. The one day that our people in the FSU would come together is the day that we celebrate HaShem giving us the Torah. The very thing that seperates us from the nations. This is awsome indeed.

(9)
Anonymous,
October 21, 2008 11:36 PM

Took me back

Your article took me back 35 years when I was just starting to get interested in Judaism. One of the first things I did was to get involved in the plight of Soviet Jewery. I even wore a medalian around my neck w/ the name of a certain refusenick. I don't remember what his name was, but after reading this, maybe it did have some effect.

(8)
Margarita,
October 7, 2007 2:36 AM

thank you

I have so many times try to explain that we didn't have mikvah, or for that matter synagogue (just an old house with one Scroll), or books to read to people - but people who never lived in Ukraine would tell me that I just didn't want to do it. I was lucky to know when holidays are and we did have Matzah and we were fasting on Yom Kippur, but my parents are very knowledgeable and I was lucky. I'm glad you have explained things like they were - thank you!

What a wonderful column. This column shows why all Jews, Orthodox, Concervative and Reform should celebrate Simchat Torah. It is the joyous hiliday that ends the Holy Day season. Do it in honor of the brave Soviet Jews who risked much to be joyous on that holiday. Do it for our ancestors who made Torah the center of their lives. And, perhaps selfishly, do it for yourselves--for your committment to Judaism.

(5)
Julia,
July 31, 2007 6:27 PM

Thank you Inna

Thank you for your article. I am pleasantly surprised to see it on Aish which, like so many other Jewish sites, seems to have very little content relating to the plight of Soviet Jewry. My family was from Kiev and we left in the mid seventies. Simchat Torah is one of the few holidays that my parents know about. I find it very difficult to explain to Jewish friends who are not from the former Soviet Union. I would like to see an article explaining why Soviet Jews have "Christmas" trees (they were known as New Year trees and not considered to have anything to do with Christmas!).

(4)
IsroelAkerman,
October 13, 2006 2:20 PM

Lucky you who lived in a big city like Minsk.

For people like me, who lived in small cities in Ukraine to go and publicly do something on the street was just unthinkable untill 1991-1992.But Jewish pride that what kept us!

(3)
Natalie,
October 13, 2006 11:00 AM

Thank you for your article

Inna,

You told my story. I too came from the former Soviet Union in the late 70's - from Kiev actually. I do not know if they celebrated Simchat Torah - something to ask my family. Thank you for detailing a bit of the Soviet emigre story. Good read. (Natasha)

(2)
A.MARYNOWSKI,
October 13, 2006 9:19 AM

This is Beautiful

This is one of the most beautiful things I have read. It makes me proud of America; something something not very 'politically correct' these days... But I am proud, and this is one of the biggest reasons... because we are free. We dont have the fear we have to have in so many parts of the world. And this story brings one other thing into a beautiful light... there is beauty and reason to have and show strength ... individually and as a nation (Israel and America I love and support you both!)

(1)
Anonymous,
October 12, 2006 9:46 AM

Wow!

I don't know why, but your words have hit home. It is amazing - the Torah is what keeps the Jewish people going. I will be celebrating Simchat Torah with another perspective this year.